


Child of Light

by AgeofZero



Series: HZD/FFXV AU [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Horizon: Zero Dawn Fusion, Character Study, Gen, Past Character Death, References to Depression, death mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:40:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27856065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgeofZero/pseuds/AgeofZero
Summary: Cor, Lion of the Lucis, has no family to his name.His only tether to life is the duty of protecting Lucis people and their homeland.Until the day it isn't his only tether.(HZD/FFXV alternate universe drabble)
Series: HZD/FFXV AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2039269
Comments: 6
Kudos: 7





	Child of Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [beansprout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beansprout/gifts).



> I did an HZD RP with a fellow fan of both that and FFXV, and I wrote two drabbles for it before real life things got in the way and the plot heavy stuff got too much to handle on top of that.  
> But I wrote the two drabbles and wanted to post them for others. Maybe one day I'll get a chance to write a whole epic multi-chapter fic about it, but that's a discussion I'd have to have with said partner.  
> These I wrote myself, with threads from our mutual plot decisions, but the whole story would have roots in our collaboration, so yknow.
> 
> This one is Cor-centric. He takes Rost's place in the conceit of the crossover AU. The Nora are now Lucis and Carja are now Altissia.  
> I love swapping pegs on the game boards in crossover AUs, so I have a whole detailed thing for who's who, but it isn't important to this drabble specifically, ahaha...

Cor, Lion of the Lucis, had no family to his name. 

There had been family, once. Mother, father, cousins and friends. They died in battle, in war, in the quest of survival in the world, but they died inevitably. He was the youngest of the name that was once his, and he had known his duty to the Sacred Lands, the Light, and those born in Their embrace. He gave to that duty willingly, for the kindness given to him by the Beacon Aulea and her mate Regis, after losing his family to war as an adolescent on the cusp of adulthood.

There had been a chance to have family anew, once. A person he would have called his own mate, a warm human embrace to come home to day in and out, but it wasn't meant to be. It was ripped violently from him with the beginning of the Altissia's first raids. And those raids brought out the dark rage in him. He gave up his soul, let his body travel beyond the borders of home for the first time, and let that rage take revenge for the loss of what could have been. He was meant to let his body die out there, and let his spirit be safe within the Light's embrace.

Fate, it seemed, had other plans for him.

~o~o~o~

Aulea would have wanted to forgive him, and welcome him back to the Lucis people. He refused that pity; his life had become a collection of borrowed time, his body now haunted the lands as a soulless guardian. He would give that borrowed time to the same cause he had given his previous life to, he would protect his home and its people. He would be an outcast, carrying the secret of his borrowed time within his empty body until his last breath, and that was more than enough for him. It was more than he deserved. The Light would know that his intentions were ever in service to Them and Their children.

The Lucis would never know why he was outcast, nor would they ask. He accepted this and followed the laws of the outcast dutifully once more.

Thus, when he was told to provide shelter for the Apostate, exiled for the crime of his birth, he did as asked. He held the child, looking at his peach fuzz of dark hair, and wondered how he came to be without mother or father to claim him. And with Aulea's blessing in defiance of her Council and Lucis traditions, he named the boy Noctis. 

Noctis, outcast of the Lucis.

~o~o~o~

When he walked away from the Cradle of Light, he carried the newly named Noctis in his arms rather than in the carrier which had been given to him with the baby. "Noctis." He said, rubbing his hand up and down the baby's back in hopefully soothing gestures. "You have been given a rough start, little one, but the Light still called your Name. There are some who don't get that luxury." He listened to the soft babbling of the boy, already half asleep as he walked them back to his home. Their home, he supposed. "I wonder what They have in store for you. What sort of life will you lead?" He looked out at the sun, now risen well above the mountain range protecting Lucis lands from invasion. "What will you do, I wonder, when the time comes for you to learn what led to your outcast."

The day was lovely, and bright, and he took a moment to sit with his back against a tree to watch the morning. The baby Noctis squirmed in his arms, and he shifted his grip so he too could look at the bright sky. "...The others in the Council say I am not allowed to love you. That I am ordered to watch you and not love you." As an outcast, he supposed he wasn't supposed to talk to the baby. He wasn't supposed to talk to anyone at all. Perhaps the years spent alone had made him crazy, and having a listening pair of ears had him ignore all his previous rules and codes that had seemed so important before. "...They don't know anything of love and devotion. They know the tribe's rules, the words they need to speak to sound as if they're one with the Light. They don't know what loneliness does, what anger and hate burn out of you. I thought I couldn't love, after what happened." He looked down at Noctis, who had fallen asleep. "I was in the dark, and now... perhaps my name was called with yours. I have purpose again with you here. If that's the Light's design, then how could I not love you?"

~o~o~o~

Eventually, Cor picked himself up and carefully bundled the sleeping Noctis back into his carrier and walked the rest of the way back to their home in contemplative silence. The hike didn't bother him, and the extra weight of the infant only made him more aware of fragile terrain and where he needed to step to stay safe. Noctis woke back up by the time they reached the familiar sounds of home, and whimpered in the way that Cor had quickly found meant the baby was hungry. The day was an otherwise normal day, with feeding, changing, and bathing. The crisp chill in the air made a light snowfall, which delighted Noctis as they sat out in the sunlight. "...I may never know the depths of how much I can love you, child. Noctis." He said, at last. "But know that I do indeed love you. And I will raise you to the best of my ability. Hopefully, my love for you will help mend the break that your heart has already suffered. We will guard our home, Noctis. One day, we will do so together." He kissed Noctis's forehead gently. 

The dream was as fleeting as any he'd ever had; he expected that Noctis would grow greater than him, that the Light would call Their son back to fulfill the reason he was born to begin with. He was but a surrogate parent at best, a stop on Noctis's destiny. He, as servant to the Light, would accept this role and give Noctis the love he should've gotten from Them, from Aulea, from the village that could've accepted him as a blessing instead of reviling him as a curse.

"Now, Noctis, it is time to rest with the sun." He whispered. He sang a half-remembered song, thinking of the voice of his lost beloved for only a moment as he did. This song didn't have to make his heart hurt in emptiness, any longer. This song could be full of the feelings he now had for the bundle in his arms. The surprise gift of a son, making him no longer just a vessel of borrowed time. He sang until he filled in the forgotten parts with new words, new verses. It felt right to do.

The sun set, and with it began a new chapter of life.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope other people enjoy my self-indulgent worldbuilding but also soft content. o7


End file.
